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manure and applied it most of us would find that we had in it a supply almost sufficient 

 for our wants, especially so far as the garden and orchard are concerned. 



Mr. President Dempsey. — ^I have experimented a little with these artificial manures. 

 One year not many years since we used three tons of the Canadian superphosphates — the 

 mineral superphosphates from Brockville, and 1 could not see any practical result from it. 

 The season proved very dry, and the phosphate was applied a little too late, I thought. 

 However, I fancied I did see a marked result on the crop of the following year. I never 

 saw fit since that to invest thirty-five dollars in that quantity of manure, I thought it 

 was too much money thrown away. Some years ago we used to collect all the bones we 

 could and break them up a little on an anvil with a stone hammer. It was something 

 like work, however, to do it. We diluted one part of sulphuric acid with three parts of 

 water, and that would dissolve the bones in the coui'se of a few days. That we mixed up 

 again with perhaps double the quantity of bones, and one barrel of it was worth five of this 

 superphosphates we got from Brockville. I tried the first superphosphate which was manu- 

 factured by Cole of Montreal, and it gave me the best results of any superphosphates we 

 have tried yet. That was a number of years ago. I have tried some that was manufac- 

 tured by P. R. Lamb of Toronto, and invariably we have had good results from it. After 

 a time Mr. Lamb adopted the idea of mixing part bone superphosphates and part mineral 

 superphosphates, — and there is a good deal of sand about Toronto too. Let us bear 

 in mind that so long as a barrel of bone dust weighed 150 pounds it was all right, but, 

 just as soon as we found the weight of a barrel of bone dust get to 250 pounds, it ceased 

 to be worth the same amount of money. When you get a barrel of bone dust that weighs 

 more than 150 pounds, you are paying for something besides bone dust. There are adver- 

 tised now small mills for crushing bones. If we could get something like that, we would 

 soon be able to dissolve the bones with hardwood ashes. I have never seen one of those 

 mills. I have produced large pears by means of artificial manure, and sometimes wofi 

 some prizes through the use of it ; but that manure was nothing more nor less than sul- 

 phate of iron dissolved and applied to the soil in a liquid state. If you feel a little too 

 lazy to do it in that way, pulverize the copperas and sow it over the soil. We sow four 

 or five pounds around a tree. When we apply it in a pulverized state it does not all dis- 

 solve at once. If we use it in a liquid state, we are a little more cautious. In experi- 

 menting with these artificial manures a few years ago we cultivated peaches, pears and 

 apples in boxes, and, having in this way perfect control over our trees, we could readily 

 observe the eSect that the manures had upon the growth of the trees, and we found that 

 nothing gave as much satisfaction in the case of the pear as sulphate of iron. I remem- 

 ber showing a Belle Lucrative pear to Mr. Barry of Rochester, and he could not recognize 

 it. It was grown all out of form. Finally he asked me what it was. I said it was a 

 Belle Lucrative. "My dear sir," he said, "if you can grow such Belle Lucratives as that 

 in Canada, grow all you can of them." I grew Josephine de Malines also in that way. 

 Josephine de Malines can be recognized by anybody, and he recognized it, but he did not 

 know how I could produce such a pear. It was produced in just the way I have stated — 

 with copperas water. 



A Member.— Have your trees blighted any since you commenced to use that? 

 Mr. President Dempsey. — I do not remember seeing any trees blighted since I com- 

 menced using that. You will pardon me, however, if I do not propose any remedy for 

 pear blight. We have tried for strawberries bone dust, superphosphate and ashes separ- 

 ately, and we have tried the whole thi'ee together, and we have tried two of them together, 

 and we have had just as good a result from common wood ashes as we have had from the 

 whole of them, or from any one of them, or from any two of them combined. 



Mr. Beadle. — Will it pay to buy potash and water your strawberry plants with 

 that? 



Mr. President Dempsey. — No ; it will never pay a man to buy potash, so long as 

 he can get ashes for ten cents a bushel. 



Mr. Beadle. — But we cannot get them for less than twenty-five cents a bushel. 

 Col. McGill. — I find that one of the strongest manures that I can use is five parts of 

 mould to one of hen manure, with one part of roasted lime to loosen the hen manure. You 

 have got to be very careful what quantity you use, because it is almost, if not quite, equal 



